In Her Eyes
by jekyllandjess
Summary: Katniss and Foxface become the only two competitors left in the arena and something none of them ever expected becomes reality.


Foxface/Katniss fanfiction:

A loud shot rang out, reverberating through the gnarled trees and causing the birds to abandon their perch on the sturdy branches. Katniss glimpsed up just in time to notice the flapping wings of a mockingjay and she winced, remembering Rue and her clever way of communication with the birds' song. _I'll win this for you, Rue. For Rue, and my sister and all those who perished in this barbaric game,_ she thought silently, still wary that there were two more players alive in the arena, and perhaps close by. With this thought in mind, she continued stealthily uphill in search for a place to camp out for a while. Her legs were like lead weights and her water jug felt dangerously light around her waist. If she needed one thing to guarantee her survival, it was water.

Katniss reached the top of the hill and was relieved to see the same river that she visited earlier with Peeta. Again she felt a pang at her heart from his abrupt death. It had been the way he died which plagued her the most. It was a berry. He had died, not from a duel to the death, or an arrow to the heart, but from eating a handful of poison berries. Even as arrogant and annoying as he often was, he didn't deserve to die so pointlessly. Now she was alone and had to fend for herself.

Katniss filled up her jug with the crisp, clear river water and greedily splashed her face with the cool liquid. She sighed in delight at the rust-colored mixture of dirt and blood that ran down her face and disappeared with every splash of water. Once satisfied with the lack of muck on her face and arms, Katniss walked back to the boulder where her sack was and reached for the apple she had stashed for emergencies. It was _gone_.

Instinctively, she reached for her bow and made a three-sixty to survey her surroundings. There were no signs of movement, just the flow of the tranquil river to her side. Katniss held her breath and was about to sit down on the rock when-_ crack_. It came from directly behind her. Katniss drew an arrow swiftly from her pack and readied the bow towards the sound. "Who's there? Come out now or I'll be forced to come in after you!" After a moment of tense silence, a bush rustled and out came a thin, lanky red head. Her locks were matted with dirt but still vibrant in the sunlight.

"Foxface. I was wondering when I would run into you again. Still stealing food, I see." Her eyes darted back and forth between Katniss's gaze, and the bow she held, directly pointed at her.

"P-Please, I'll give you back the food, if you would just lower your weapon. I mean you no harm." Katniss held the girl's gaze for a few moments and made sure she was concealing no weapons, and then lowered her bow. It was then that she noticed the deep gash on Foxface's right leg, along with the pained expression on her face that she hadn't caught before. _Trust no one_. Katniss thought. But as she stared deeper into the girl's eyes, her heart overpowered her brain and she beckoned for Foxface to join her by the river.

She tried to walk normally over to Katniss, but because of the exertion of energy from her attempt at fleeing the scene earlier, she fell back into a limp. Strangely, Katniss had to resist the urge to get up and help her. _She could still be concealing weapons_. From what Katniss had seen of Foxface, she was undoubtedly sneaky and clever._ She could be waiting for just the right moment to pull a knife on me and slit my throat._ With that thought in mind, Katniss was extra wary as she watched Foxface sit cross legged on the rock. Katniss cleared her throat, "Do you want to get that apple out?" Foxface reached into her pocket and pulled out the shiny red fruit. She seemed about to take a bite of the apple but then thought against it, holding the whole thing out to Katniss.

Katniss raised her eyebrows, "You managed to steal it, might as well share it with me…only if you're hungry, of course." Her eyes lit up and Foxface took a bite out of the juicy apple, chewing ravenously, her body hunched over in a defensive position. After swallowing the last bit of flesh, she eyed the crystal water of the river thirstily and jumped down too quickly off of the boulder. Her wounded leg wobbled on the landing and folded inward, sending her sprawling to the dirt ground. She let out a whimper and winced as a fresh spurt of blood oozed out of the gash, as red as the fruit now lying on the dirt floor.

Katniss rushed to her side and kneeled down, worry laced in her expression. "Are you alright?" She tore a piece of fabric from her shirt and reached towards the injured leg in an attempt to bandage the bleeding wound, but Foxface shied away, edging closer to the river. "I don't need your help-I can take care of my-" Before she could finish her objections, Katniss put her hands on Foxface's shoulders and looked directly at her. Foxface stared back and Katniss tried to read into the deep pools of her eyes.

"I just want to help you. I'm not like Cato or Clove…you can trust me." Katniss felt hypocritical as she uttered those last few words. She had major trust issues, understandable, she thought, considering where she was, in an arena where kids have to kill each other to survive. She didn't even have a clue as to why she was talking so freely to this girl. But nevertheless, she knew that Foxface couldn't be trusted. She was a fierce competitor, Katniss knew that from watching her train. But despite that, as Katniss looked into the redhead's eyes, she felt her prior worries slipping away. Katniss once again grabbed the fabric and was about to wrap the girl's leg before thinking of something better.

"Can you walk to the river? We should clean your leg first before it's bandaged. My mentor, Haymitch, droned on and on about infections but he knew what he was talking about…they can get pretty nasty." Foxface managed a small smile and nodded, bracing herself against Katniss as she stood up. "I figured", Foxface said as they made their way slowly to the river bank, "That if you wanted to kill me, you would've done so already." Katniss decided not to respond, it seemed like a simple reflection, so she just kept guiding Foxface to the river, oddly aware of Foxface's pale hand on her waist and her own quickened heartbeat. She shrugged it off and after what seemed like an agonizing trip for Foxface, they arrived.

Foxface still held onto Katniss as she stretched her leg out and into the transparent water. She let out a sigh of relief and closed her eyes, relishing the soothing sensation of the cleansing liquid which immersed her swollen wound. They sat in silence for a few moments, until Foxface spoken up. "Don't you want to know how I got hurt?" Katniss looked up and nodded, annoyed with herself that she hadn't asked before.

"Trackerjackers. I outran them but unfortunately lost my footing and I scraped my leg on a jagged rock. I blame the hallucinations, though, they…distracted me." She lost her stoic composure momentarily and blushed, before quickly averting her gaze. Katniss sensed that Foxface was hiding something, but decided it could wait. She could see the girl was starting to shiver from the cool water which turned colder with the slow disappearance of the sun, it was approaching dawn.

"I understand, those trackerjackers are lethal, you're lucky you got away in one piece." The two reflected momentarily on Glimmer, whose luck had unfortunately run out. "What do you say we get you out of this water? I think your cut is clean enough now." It was more of a command than a question, and Foxface nodded quickly but before standing up, splashed Katniss playfully, sending water droplets flying at her wavy brown hair and torn shirt. "Hey!" Katniss laughed and returned the splash, consciously aware of the wide smile spreading across her face.

_This isn't like me. I'm never this open, this happy…and what am I doing? There's still someone out here besides us, I shouldn't be fooling around! _Katniss quickly turned away from the girl and sloshed back to dry land, leaving Foxface to limp back on her own. By the time Foxface reached the bank, Katniss was nearly done packing her bag, intent on leaving the redhead, to escape her own internal confusion and stay safe and on the move. "Katniss? You're leaving? I thought…I thought-"

"There's nothing to think, Foxface! I left the cloth on the rock if you want to bandage your leg…you can finish the apple if you want. I stayed to help you, because you would've done the same for me. But now I need to leave." Upon hearing these words, Foxface frowned, unsatisfied. "Don't you trust me? If we're together, the odds are shifted in our favor, since there's two of us versus only one tribute." She had a point, Katniss thought, but only under normal circumstances. "No. You're injured, you'll only slow me down and….I have to win this. I can't afford to die because I was _nice_ and dragged you along with me."

It hurt Katniss to be so shrewd, but it was necessary. For one, Foxface's injury _would_ slow them down, but also, Katniss didn't want to have to face her if they did outlive tribute number three. She knew what would happen if that was the case: one of them would have to die. The only person she had killed was the tribute who killed Rue, for both self defense, and retribution. Katniss couldn't fathom the thought of having to kill Foxface, because she was an innocent girl, she hadn't done anything wrong, and….because…. _she means something to me_, Katniss realized.

Before she could wrap her mind around how much this feeling terrified her, Foxface was running toward her. For a fleeting instant, Katniss thought that the girl was racing toward her in an attempt to do her in, so Katniss pulled out a knife from her pack in one swift motion that she had snagged back at the Cornicopia. She held it at her side, ready to use it if provoked. Less than two seconds later, Foxface had her lips pressed against those of the shocked brunette. Katniss let the knife clatter to the ground as she stumbled backwards with the sudden impact. She gasped in between the intense kiss, in a strange mixture of confusion and delight but did not cease the tight embrace of their lips.

It was Foxface who did, after a few moments, and their lips parted like a gentle whisper. Katniss was still in awe of what just happened in the last minute. She lifted her hand to Foxface's cheek, her fingers stroking the redhead's soft skin in a figure eight pattern. "You're so beautiful. I never really noticed before, how gorgeous you were." Foxface grinned. "Yeah well, I guess I was just too fast for you to catch a proper glimpse of me." She said jokingly. Katniss, with her still persistent stubbornness, was about to protest, when a loud bark sounded somewhere beyond the clearing. It was followed by a drawn out, deep throated scream, and then a loud shot. Whoever was attacked was most certainly, dead.

The two girls froze. Foxface let out a small gasp and looked at Katniss, who stood, serious and somber, her mouth set in a straight line. But Foxface knew her true emotions, they were written in her eyes, pain, terror, sadness, panic. Foxface was sure her eyes said the same. She took Katniss's hand in her own but she shrugged away, looking steadily down at the ground. When she spoke, it was as if all the life was drained out of her body. "Whoever was killed, was killed by mutts, and I'm sure they're on there way here." _They're on their way to kill us. _Foxface thought, Katniss didn't have to finish the rest of that sentence. Foxface's mind was racing, she desperately tried to think of a plan, any plan, where they would both be safe. Such plan escaped her, there was no such thing as a happy ending for both of them.

Katniss knew that, if the mutts came for them, and they miraculously managed to kill them, there would just be more. The Capitol wanted a victor, they wouldn't stop until one of them died. With that in mind, Katniss also did not forget about Foxface's leg. The mutts could easily defeat her, and Katniss would win. She would get everything back, everything she's been fighting for, she would have everything…everything except Foxface. This new emotion for the redhead confused her to no end, yet she knew that if Foxface died, her heart would break.

Katniss faced her again, but this time she wrapped Foxface in a tight embrace. "Remember me, okay?" She whispered into Foxface's ear. At this, Foxface looked up, horrified. "Katniss, what are you saying? _Stop it!_ We'll…we'll be okay." Katniss shook her head slightly. Yips and barks sounded, loud and close by. Foxface's bottom lips trembled and she fought back the pool of tears that were forming in her eyes. "_I love you._" She heard herself say. Searching blindly, her lips found Katniss's forehead and then traveled delicately downwards, until their lips made contact. Katniss kept her eyes open and fixed on Foxface. She took in all of the girl's beauty, before closing her eyes, and still seeing her beloved in her mind, plunged the steel knife that she had been hidden in her sleeve, into her heart.

Foxface heard a gasp escape from Katniss's lips and then noticed the red blotch spreading quickly across her shirt. _"No, no! You idiot! Why would you do this?"_ Foxface desperately screamed. "Because, I can't-live", Katniss paused, feeling herself going in and out of consciousness. Foxface had brought them both to the ground, while she laid Katniss's head on her lap. The tears were streaming freely down her face now, and she let them. Katniss came back into focus and she noticed that the pain in her chest had disappeared, instead she felt a glowing, warm sensation all throughout her body. "Without you" She finished her phrase and gave a small smile. Foxface returned it with an extremely weak smile, which became a grimace. Foxface smoothed away the hair from Katniss's face and found her hand being grasped by the dying brunette. Katniss drew in one last shaky breath and exhaled. _BOOM. _The shot rang out and Foxface became the 74th annual Hunger Games champion. The mutts who had entered the clearing seemed to freeze in mid-run. Foxface let out a choked sob and leaned down, giving Katniss one last kiss on her lips. _"I'll never forget you. You're the real champion."_


End file.
